Current Affairs
Ranks & Reports

A Swedish think tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)announced that Russia has emerged as the world’s second-largest arms producer after the United States. Russia surpassed Britain, which had held that spot since 2002 and remains Western Europe’s No. 1 arms maker. SIPRI announced in its annual report on the world’s 100 biggest armaments groups that the combined arms sales of Russian companies amounted to $37.7 billion in 2017, an 8.5 percent rise from a year earlier. Russia’s sales accounted for 9.5 percent of a worldwide total of $398.2 billion.

The Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) 2018 was released on the sidelines of a UN summit on global warming. As per the Index, Sweden has topped the list while India was on 11th position. The European Union as a whole rose from 21st to 16th place, but its biggest economy, Germany, fell from 22nd to 27th because of its reliance on lignite coal, a big source of greenhouse gas emissions. Saudi Arabia came last, in 60th place, partly due to its obstructive role during international climate negotiations.

India will retain its position as the world’s top recipient of remittances in 2018 with its diaspora sending a whopping USD 80 billion back home, according to the World Bank report. India is followed by China (USD 67 billion), Mexico and the Philippines (USD 34 billion each) and Egypt (USD 26 billion), according to the global lender. The Bank estimates that officially-recorded remittances to developing countries will increase by 10.8% to reach USD 528 billion in 2018.

The number of patents granted by India shot up by 50% in 2017, keeping up a trend of steep increases, according to the UN’s World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). The patents granted by India increased from 8,248 in 2016 to 12,387 in 2017, the WIPO’s World Intellectual Property Indicators 2018 report released in Genevashowed. Globally, 1.4 million patents were granted in 2017, the report estimated.

The UAE now has the world’s most powerful passport, achieving the top ranking in an achievement hailed as a tribute to the legacy of the Founding Father, Sheikh Zayed,and the country’s diplomacy. The number 1 spot in the global Passport Index was achieved just as the UAE celebrates it 47th National Day and its achievements since 1971.

The index, compiled by Arton Capital, ranks national passports based on the number of countries a holder can enter without a visa or by obtaining one on arrival. India was ranked 140th in the list. Top 3 countries on INDIVIDUAL PASSPORT POWER RANK are:

Bollywood superstar Salman Khan is the richest Indian celebrity, according to the 2018 Forbes India Celebrity 100 list, which he has topped for the third consecutive year. Shah Rukh Khan has fallen out of the top 10 list. The 2018 Forbes India Celebrity 100 List rankings are based on estimates of entertainment-related earnings of celebrities. Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli jumped one spot to the second rank, with total earnings of Rs 228.09 crore, a sharp increase of 116.53 percent from the previous year. Actor Akshay Kumar completed the top three, with Rs 185 crore in earnings in the period under consideration for the list.

Moody’s Investors Service’s annual Banking System Outlook on India estimated the country’s real gross domestic product (GDP) for the current financial year and next fiscal to grow at 7.2% and 7.4%, respectively. In its banking system outlook, the global rating agency stated that the growth will be driven by investment growth and strong consumption. It also stated that the operating environment will be stable, supported by robust economic growth.

Four Indian-origin technology executives have made it to the Forbes’ list of America’s 50 women in technology space in 2018. The list includes Neha Narkhede, chief technology officer and co-founder of streaming platform Confluent; Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan, CEO, and founder of identity-management company Drawbridge; Padmasree Warrior, former chief technology officer (CTO) of Cisco, and Komal Mangtani, senior director at Uber.

Andhra Pradesh has topped the list of states with the highest employability followed by Rajasthan and Haryana, as per the India Skills Report 2019. The employability levels of B.Tech/B.E have increased across all the sectors, touching a new high of 63.11%, which remained at 42.08 last year. However, the employability levels of MBA and polytechnic stand low between 47.18% and 45.90%. The survey was conducted jointly by Wheebox, PeopleStrong, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

The World Health Organisation (WHO) in a report stated that India is the only country to have recorded a substantial decline in malaria cases in 2017 out of the 11 highest burden countries worldwide. India registered a 24% reduction in cases over 2016, largely due to substantial declines of the disease in the highly malarious state of Odisha, home to approximately 40 percent of all malaria cases in the country. According to the report, India accounted for 4% of global malaria cases in 2017.